This is my experience working in an orphanage and children's hospital in Iasi, Romania for the summer of 2008.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

June 10, 2008 (Tuesday)

It was really hot outside today. I’m scared of what next month will bring. I have a feeling we’re only getting a small glimpse of the horror weather that is to come…especially since no one believes in opening windows.

Whitney and I were the only ones in the Mickey Mouse room today. Elisa went to Bambi because Mary needed a break today and they needed one more worker in the room. My kids were a joy today. Valentina finally said the word “mama” and “tata” which means “mom” and “dad” in English. I was so proud of my little vampire! One may wonder why I would teach her those words since she doesn’t have parents, but the kids often call the workers “mama.” Then Irina was a happy camper today. I took her out of her seat and tickled her. The second you touch her or pay her any attention to her she comes to life. I feel bad because sometimes the other kids require more of my attention and it easily distracts from the quality attention I can spend with her, but today I felt like we had good one-on-one time together. I wish I could have taken pictures of Irina and Christina today because they had bright, purple matching bows placed directly on top of their head. Sometimes the outfits the workers put on them are interesting. Maybe that’s all they have. Whitney and I were cracking up though so we had no complaints.

Maria is so smart. She is becoming excellent at throwing the ball back and forth to me. Sometimes it takes her a minute to process certain commands I say to her, but she definitely understands. Today she scooted over to me and grabbed my arm when I was holding the other kids. I think she does that when she feels like she needs a little bit of love. I cuddled her for a couple of minutes…Iulia and I had fun playing with objects that have different feels to them. Iulia loves sensory items. Her favorite thing in the world is to hold a paper bag or a random piece of plastic in her hand. I don’t know why she likes it so much but she does! Today I brought this really soft scarf and ironically she wasn’t a huge fan of it…I tried giving it to her a time before but she didn’t like it then either. I thought she’d love it. Nope.

I played with Ghiocel a bit today. He’s one of Whitney Scott’s kids. He is a little sweetheart, but boy does he scream loud. Today a company came and gave gift baskets to all the kids in the orphanage. In the bag they had a juice box, puzzle, stuff like that…Anyways, the man handed me a juice box to Ghiocel, and Ghiocel ended up squeezing the box and the juice squirted all over his face. I was laughing…He looked a little stunned. Oh well. Kids will be kids.

Today I only got to see Andrei for a few minute because he was napping, but when he woke up he ran directly to me as usual. I danced with him for a while and he just rested his head on my shoulder. I love it when they are cuddly right after their naps and not jumping off the walls. It’s great!

I saw Sera outside today. I just tried to ignore him, because I didn’t have any energy to deal with any situations with him. Lets just say it was awkward.

Today I haven’t felt real well. My stomach and head have been bothering me. Annie wasn’t feeling well today either. I think we are all getting a little worn out from the heat and working with sick kids all day. I need to pray that my health will be good enough that I can take care of the kids…

At the hospital we took Florine outside…he was so excited! He zoomed out of that room to the elevator. Kenz and I practically had to jog to catch up with him. I guess being outside is a big deal when you are stuck inside all day. I take being outside for granted. In fact lately being outside is quite miserable because it’s getting so hot.

Today my little Claudio looked like he was feeling much better. I don’t know what is wrong with him but his little stomach is huge and hard. He looks like he has the stomach of one of the starving African children you see on Feed the Children. I was so excited when we got him to smile. He is normally so serious. It takes genuine effort to get him to smile, but he did it! I got an entire video on him smiling. It was sooo cute…babies just melt me.

After those kiddos I went and visited Valentine and the boys on the sixth floor. Mindy and Annie brought their laptop so the boys could watch the movie “Cars.” They loved it. I chatted with Valentine for a while. It was so cute because Valentine was like “Are there more nice girls in America like you girls?” We said “yes.” Then he replied “So it’s not just a dream. Oh my goodness…” I quickly informed him that not all the girls in America were nice, but that there were lots of nice girls.” He was so excited. Then the boys were laughing at Mindy, Annie and I because we were sitting on the ground while the movie was playing. Here they believe if a girl sits on the cold ground your ovaries will freeze and you won’t be able to have kids. It sounds ridiculous, but they believe it. When the nurses walked in and saw us sitting there they kept giving us weird looks. However, I’m not too concerned about it.

Annie and Mindy left a bit early because Annie wasn’t feeling well so I tried to keep the crew entertained. Valentine loves rap music – so I pulled out my Ipod and found some clean rap songs. He was like “this is so cool…” The two boys had a blast listening to it. Valentine kept singing to the song, but he’d say the wrong words. So cute.

Right before I left there is this little 11-year-old boy named Ionut who is friends with Valentine who timidly asked for my phone number. He had to have Valentine translate because he can’t speak English. I told him I didn’t know my phone number so he gave me his. Haha…Of course I’m not going to do anything with it, but that’s adorable. He looked a little embarrassed when Valentine was translating for him. Then Valentine was like “I want to get Mindy’s number because she is really cute.” Oh these little boys and their little crushes.

As we were leaving the hospital the crazy security guard came up to me. He is always outside whenever we take Florine outside and he always asks me if I can go for a picnic with him. He’s like my dad’s age…gross…Anyways, I always tell him “no,” but he still asks me everyday. He grabbed my hand and kissed it in front of all the girls when I left...men in general are interesting here.

2 comments:

Hi Whitney, it's Kami Galbraith, from Nuskin. I'm not sure if you remember me or not from working convention, but Sandy told me about your blog. What an awesome experience you must be having. Can I ask what BYU program this is? I feel so bad for those children. It sounds like they are so neglected by the nurses. So sad! :( Good luck with your remaining few weeks. Hope to see you back at Nuskin sometime. :)

The program is through the Kennedy Center and is simply titled the Romania International Internship...The situation is sad for many of the children...but there are some loving and compassionate workers. Thanks for the good luck! I appreciate it!

My Final Goodbye to Andrei...

This is how Andrei decided to pose for our final picture together...haha...my little monkey.

Last day with Andrei...

Right after I said goodbye to Andrei...these were the gifts I left with him.

The Branch!

Around the Orphanage!

Alex's Birthday party!

Andrei, Cristi and Andrea...my little orphan angels...

Sitting outside with Maria in my lap and the other girls and their kiddos...

Alex swimming on his back...

The Light of my LIFE! My ANDREI!

tickle...tickle...

Classic Andrei pose...such a little stinker...

Can't Get Enough of the Babes in the Hospital!

A little bit of heaven...

The most gorgeous eyelashes you've ever seen...

I'm in love...

This is the little baby that would copy my laugh every time I laughed... such a cutie!

The Black Sea Adventure

I'm pretty sure this is the best picture we took on the trip...

Mindy and I...

Whitney S. and I laying out...

The GANG!

Burying Kenz...

Elyse carrying the umbrella on the way to the beach...

Right before the banana boat ride!

Putting our gear on for the Banana Boat ride!

No turning back...

We are off...

Burying Mindy...

Hospital Fun!

Mihai! Our little angel.

Yes there is some pink in my hair...

The poor thing did not feel well at all.

Kristi! One of our kids at the orphanage with cerebral palsy. He had to go to the hospital for some treatments.

Andreiseni...A Little Bit of Heaven on Earth

Time for bed!

Sleeping under the stars...

We love horses oh yes we do!

Our little cup of honey to eat from the bee man.

MacKenzie's belly after our fifth feeding...we all felt that way...

Any more food anyone?

The old man who sat across from us at the ceremony...he was adorable.

Flowers we were given by one of the families.

We're about to be fed...again...

All the houses have grapevines that line the ceiling when you go to enter their homes...

The librarian who kept giving us gifts!

I caught a baby duck! I was so excited!

The family that grows vegetables in the town.

The beauty of the lake...

The bee man!

One of the houses we dropped by. We were warmly welcomed.

Andrei and his foster mom.

The Monasteries...

Our professor Dave came for a visit. We tried to pick him up for a cool picture. It didn't work.

The beauty...

GORGEOUS

A reservation we stopped by...I shared my apple with a baby deer.

Mario our Romanian Liason. She is great!

Annie's 20th Birthday!

Under the pavillion...

Annie holding the necklace I got her from Krakow...

The most disturbing display of dead goats in the park we have ever seen...it was sick...only in Romania.

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

Our jumping picture...good times...

Whitney S. and I hit legs while we were jumping...

The pyramid...

Reenacting Annie's Drawing!

I was trying to make sure their poses were just right...

This was the black and white picture we took in order to reenact the drawing Annie drew...

Color version....

Our Birthday Girl!

Whitney S.

An amazing pic of Mindy...haha...I love it!

JULY 4th! I'm PROUD to be an AMERICAN!

The gang...

My roomies...we're all dressed in red, white and blue!

Picnic time...

Balloon Toss!

I just got a piece of ice down Annie's pants...haha...poor thing...

MacKenzie just got ice down my pants...

Water fun...good times..

This is the face of Elder Armstrong who just had a bag of ice water thrown on him...

Good times at the Hospital!

I put a fake tatoo on Marius...

We couldn't get her bed side to go down all the way - so I jumped in and played with Alexandra - she recently had another surgery...

Auschwitz and the Holocaust...

Entrance to Auschwitz...we didn't take pics inside out of respect for those who died...

Birkenau...a few miles away from Auschwitz...

Housing...if you could call it that...

Drawing done by children in one of the blocks...

Each block had line after line of this type of bedding...each slot fit four to five people to a bed...

The restrooms in each block...

Pond memorial where the ashes were put after the bodies were burned...

Rubble of the crematorium that was blown up by the Nazis to cover up any evidence of their wrong doings...

Krakow, Poland

We had fun building a pyramid in the courtyard of the Wawel Castle...

Medieval Square!

Our sillly side...

We kept getting lost...but we always found our way!

Feeding the birds in Medieval Square...

My blue bike with a horn! I love that little horn...

Can't tell it's a rental bike huh?....

A little rest from bike riding!

We decided to rent bikes for a few hours and ride around Poland...so fun...

We love our ice cream soo...

Running around...

The girls...

A giant head in Medieval Square...

Whitney Scott decided we each needed an individual photo shoot along the Wawel Castle wall...

My FAVORITE CITY! BUDAPEST...

Yes this picture is real...

So gorgeous it takes your breath away...

Parliament Building! GORGEOUS!

We love chocolate crepes oh yes we do!

Monument to Hungarian Jews that died in the Holocaust...

Ironically I ran into Truman Hunt (CEO of Nu Skin) and Scott Schwerdt (President of Americas and Europe at Nu Skin) when I went to church in Budapest...For those of you who don't know I worked at Nu Skin for over a year, and I was treated very well by the company....What a small world.

Shopping on the bridge...sooooo fun!

On our way home...wornout and sunburned...

The most gorgeous waterfall ever...outside the castle...

The city I love!

Heros' circle...

The castle...

Try saying this word five times fast...haha...

Good ol' sleeper trains...

Largest Jewish synagogue in Europe...

We're soo crazy...

Even on vacation church is a good thing to attend...

SCABIES!!!!!!!!

The night we found out we had scabies we had to take a shower, put the ointment on, then sleep in our outfit that we were wearing the next day...then we had to do it all over again the next day...DANG SCABIES...

Annie and I had fun being dramatic in this picture...

Cream to the rescue!

The Hospital...

Marion....can you say adorable!

Marius giving me a kiss on the cheek after a rough game of arm wrestling...

My Orange Hair...

I was feeling a bit nervous...if only I knew what the outcome was going to be...

This was my hair right after I dyed it...it has now faded (thank goodness) back to a golden blonde...yes - everyone have a good laugh...P.S. Mom I need you to set me up a hair appointment for the day I get home...thank you.

Marion's Funeral...

Picnic with the Priest and Mayor

I felt like I was in a fairy tale!

The priest...

The mayor (left) and a friend (right)...

Oh my Claudio!

My Claudio laughing!

Kenz and I at the hospital...

Dinner with the Moldova Boys

The Hospital

Florine our little trickster...

Alexandra...so adorable! She has been in the hospital for months. She has had several surgeries on her feet.

The gang on the 6th floor...

Claudio...the lost little boy on the 7th floor...

Our little Marion from the orphanage...he needs a kidney transplant desperately or he won't make it...

The lovely hospital floors...

Melissa's Birthday!

This is my favorite pic of Melissa...haha...

Picnic Time!

After a long game of Ultimate Frisbee...

Elyse and Mindy...oh the joy.

My friend Sera and I.

I hand sewed this skirt and wore it to church! I was soooo proud of myself!

Annie made a skirt too...we had to take a pic...

Night on the town....

Mamma Mia Steak House

A bunch of people were handing out flowers in an effort to get final votes for some politician...we didn't vote, but we did have fun with the flowers!

The Hospital...continued

Poor thing had the worst fever...

Alexandra and Roxanna...two sisters...so full of energy and love!

Samson...this little boy cries all day for his mom...

Florine our little flirt...he went back home Friday...he will be dearly missed!

My Little Orphan Kids!

MY ANDREI!

Valentina my little vampire...

Maria...she is always full of surprises!

Iulia...

Constantine...

Irina...

Church

Church and our fellow Relief Society Members!

My Roomies!

SCARY!

This is written all over in our apartment building...guys aren't real respectful of women here.

More Babies!

We found more babies without moms to love...they were hiding from us on a floor we never go to...

He kept falling asleep while I was feeding him...

Annie was blowing on the babies neck...there is NO air conditioning in the hospital and they bundle the kids up. Everytime we pick them up they are drenched in sweat...poor things!

THE HOSPITAL

My sweetheart...the poor thing is a boy, and they dressed him in pink.

Poor thing...everytime he coughs her entire face turns purple.

Our little Octavian!

MacKenzie tried asking the nurse this orphans name and they said "he's an orphan he doesn't have one..." We decided this was too sad so we named him Octavian.

This baby was a newborn orphan. So tiny...The poor thing is having heart surgery soon...

I was blowing on her stomach...she got a kick out of it!

Our little angel...except we call her grumpy because sometimes she doesn't like to smile - but when she does she lights up the room!

Florine and I...he's such a little ladies man!

Countryside of Romania

City of Brashov

Brashov

Mindy and I in the town square of Brashov!

At the Hostel!

Mindy got the bottom bunk, and I got the top...so fun!

The ENTIRE gang at the hostel...

We love each other!

Peles Castle

Can you say GORGEOUS?

I look like I'm in pain...

Dracula's Castle

Part of the gang!

Vlad the Impaler's Castle

The Cemetery and the Old Man

The old man...

The PIATA...it's like an underground market place where everyone brings their fresh fruit and vegetables to sell...it's our favorite place to go so far.

THE CITY OF IASI

View Outside Our Window...

Although you don't see a lot of grass in the city...you can tell it's very green here...I can't wait to see the country side!!

These are the apartments in Iasi...buildings like these cover the city...

A gypsy girl came up and asked us for a banana for her baby brother...we gave one to her - but you have to be careful because more will come and beg you for food.

A gypsy family...you see them walking around sometimes...however, they are discriminated against by the Romanians greatly.

Us girls needed some CHOCOLATE...gogosi is amazing here...it's like an inverted donut. We can't eat too much of these though or we are going to come back weighing a thousand pounds.

Cultural Palace continued...

The Cultural Palace...just down the street from where we live...absolutely gorgeous!

The city wasn't designed to have parking spots...so cars park everywhere...including the sidewalks. The drivers are a little crazy. They don't really follow the the driving laws - then again maybe they don't have any?

The rain loves us!

Embrace the RAIN!

Water in my shoe after the first Sunday...nice...

The Last GIRLS' Night!

Aunt Courtney and me....isn't she simply radiant!

My Mom and Aunt Ariane...but she's like my sister...

The COUNTDOWN begins...

My Attempt to Pack...

I think I need to reorganize...or cut back on the amount of clothes I'm taking...

Such a homemaker...these scrubs will be my best friend in Romania!

Toys for the children!

Whitney's Favorite Quotes

"No individual has the right to come into the world or go out of it, without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it." - George Washington Carver

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ~

"The only things in life you regret, are the risks you didn't take."

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank